Ginger Beer - Non-Alcholic

Friday, July 27, 2012

Hope everyone's week has gone well!

The Ginger Beer was a big hit in Botanicals class! I made enough
to share with my Botanicals classmates, some other colleagues and a
few professors as well! I named it Sunny Summer Thursday Ginger
Beer since our class meets on Thursday evenings and we enjoy the
sunlight as we gather plants from the NUHS Botanical Garden for use
in our remedies.

So, rather than ramble this week, I'll share my "info
sheet/storyline" along with the medicinal properties of the
botanical ingredients for the ginger beer! For the purposes of some
background information, I was a home brewer for about 15 years. As
I would introduce each new batch, I would build a "story" behind
the brew and share that story at the introduction of the new batch.
This is how Tall Tailes (with an e) Brewery came to be. I suppose
you know by now that I like to tell a good story, so here goes!
(And remember, the ingredients and amounts are real… the sources
are well, a bit of a Tall Taile, so you can use ingredients from
your locale).

TALL TAILES
BREWERIESRETURNS FROM A 4-YEAR HIATUS!

INTRODUCINGSUNNY SUMMER THURSDAY GINGER BEER!

Sit back, relax and take a long, cool sip of this refreshing
comeback beverage from the brewhouse of Tall Tailes
Brewery!

This non-alcoholic ginger beer is slathered with crushed ginger
root, accentuated with juniper berry, fresh key lime juice and
fresh lemon juice! Only the finest turbinado sugar is utilized to
sweeten the sharpness of our exclusively grown ginger on our secret
palatial mountain estate! Finally, just in case "the bite" is a
little more than you expected (light weight), we put a bit of
yarrow in our recipe to soothe the beast that is your tummy saying,
"Give me MORE! I can't take it, but I WANT MORE of that Tall Tailes
Brew!!!"

This could be a "non-alcoholic" preparatif sipped before a
sunset dinner cruise in the Tropics! The short overview of the
active ingredients after the recipe will give a little more info on
the remarkably soothing GI help from this refreshing beverage!

Have a much as you like. The days are long, the sun is hot, so
why not keep "cool" the Tall Tailes way… with an ice-cold Sunny
Summer Thursday Ginger Beer!

1/8 teaspoon per gallon of Tall Tailes Top
Secret Dried Ale Yeast (or any dried American ale yeast variety
from your local home brewing store). You can use dried baker's
yeast if you prefer as well. The baker's yeast will give a bit more
"bready" flavor.

Ready?......BEGIN!!!

Making Ginger Beer is as simple as making soup!Just take care not to bring to a boil with all the sugar in
there!

Heat over Medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. (NOTE: you
can heat to just before boiling and this will give more ginger
flavor. BEWARE of scorching, however.)

Remove from heat, cover and let steep for one hour, or up to
two if you like.

After an hour, empty the saucepan through a "double mesh"
kitchen strainer, being sure to squeeze out all of the juice (this
is your flavor).

Cool the drained syrup to room temperature. You can do this by
resting the container in a sink filled with ice water or putting
the container in the refrigerator if necessary by the time the
steeping stage is complete.

Now, drop in the 1/8 teaspoon of yeast (per gallon, so adjust
for size of bottle if necessary)

Add the lemon and lime juice.

Add the syrup that has been cooled to room temperature.

Top the bottle(s) off with water.

Now, cap the bottle(s).

Shake or rotate them a few times to mix the ingredients and the
yeast.

Store the container(s) in a dark place that is room temp (or
you can cover them with towels in a corner).

Check the carbonation level around 24 hours, BUT NOT LONGER
THAN 36 HOURS as the bottle may build a tremendous amount of
pressure from the yeast eating the sugar and creating carbon
dioxide (fizz). The cap should "want" to come off. This means that
you are building carbonation from the little yeast buddies eating
the sugar in the ginger beer.

Once you have the amount of carbonation you want, seal the
bottle and put it in the refrigerator. The coolness of the fridge
will cause the yeast to become dormant, stop eating and thus stop
creating alcohol.

Now, once chilled, your Ginger Beer is ready to be served to
your family and friends! Enjoy!

The Ginger Beer just after it was bottled, covered and stored
for 24 hours.It is a bit cloudy as it has a lot of botanical material in it
(the good stuff!).That will settle on the bottom, but it is really good to drink
forthe healthy properties of the ingredients.

The anti-emetic effects are attributed to the Gingerols and
Shogaols in the ginger. Ginger helps to suppress gastric
contractions, raises the tone of the intestinal muscles and
increases peristalsis. It's also pretty darn good for motion
sickness too, according to some!

German Commission E has approved Ginger for loss of appetite,
travel sickness and Dyspeptic Complaints.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)2

Yarrow is used medicinally as a cholegogue (induces bile
release) from the guaianolides and germacranolides contained within
the plant. The flavonoids in yarrow help with a spasmolytic effect
on the GI tract, soothing the digestive process.

German Commission E has approved yarrow for dyspeptic
complaints and loss of appetite.

Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis)3

Juniper berry's flavonoid content enables it to be used as
helper for dyspeptic complaints. Some reports indicate that juniper
berry can help with hyperglycemia as well, although those haven't
been proven yet. Regardless, the juniper can't hurt as any soda,
including Ginger Beer, has plenty of sugar!

German Commission E has approved the use of juniper berry for
dyspeptic complaints.

Brewer's Yeast

While Brewer's Yeast was used in this recipe to create the
carbonation, not enough sugar was converted to alcohol to help the
reproduction and growth of our little friendly yeast critters. As a
result, we won't get the benefit of lots of B-Complex vitamins,
just the refreshing bubbles in this case.

Lemon and Lime Juice

Finally, the fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice are full of
anti-oxidants such as Vitamin C! If you are on a sunset
cruise, you need to prevent the scourge of every sailor,
scurvy!

All the folks here at Tall Tailes Brewery hope you have enjoyed
reading this little bit of information on our first non-alcoholic
offering. Making the Ginger Beer was loads of fun and making a
healthy soft drink (is this possible?) is a bonus in itself! The
brewing bug may have bitten the staff here and some mothballs have
been moved along with some dusting off of old brewing equipment.
Cheers!